Wow!
This is such great and interesting music, and it’s a whole ep for free.
Tree Wave’s marvellous Cabana ep is now out as a netlabel release on the internet archive. It’s out on Observatory online’s archive page. The music is very special; all music is made by really old computer stuff, printers and comodore 64 machines…. and Lauren Gray’s beautiful voice.
Download the ep, its artwork and enjoy!
The term “casio pop” gets a new meaning when the norwegian duo Kawaii play their half-naive synth-pop, – absolutely with a casio-feel… The band is named after another synth, Kawaii, – so will this be kawaii-pop then? Confused?
Kawaii released their debut album “if it shines, we have it” on the american label Shelflife records in november 2004, with a mix of male and female vocals over crisp electro-beats, toy keyboards, organs and jazzy guitars. It’s sweet, summery and nice, – almost like a synth version of the things you can find on the swedish Labrador label (acid house kings, sambassadeur).
The label lists up these band in the “for fans of…” category: O.M.D., The Postal Service, Figurine, Kanda, early Magnetic Fields, Mahogany, Remington Super 60, Pacific (Creation Records) .
Some nice references there…
The label has some mp3s on their website, and there are also some available on norwegian radio NRK’s “urört”-pages:
If it shines, we have it
They would talk, sleep or fuck
Happy people, scary planet
Friends who make you lonely
For our foreign readers (and every norwegian who hasn’t heard their music), – we reccommend this band from Trondheim: The Lionheart brothers. They are inspired by the brittish shoegazer scene of the 90s, and sounds like an updated version of MBV or slowdive.
Their website includes both mp3s and videos.
Here’s a song: The polar dilemma. Two more on their website.
North-norwegians Schtimm will release a 3rd single from the album “featuring…” this spring. The track is “IDIOTsong” and a video is under production. The track and video will be available for download on the bands website soon. Here is a track from their latest album “featuring”, and this popsong is featuring Hank von Helvete, the singer in Turbonegro on vocals. Hank is also the singer on “idiotsong”.
Schtimm feat Hank – waybackthens
More MP3s + videos are available at the fan-section of their website (requires registration/login).
Schtimm has released 3 albums so far, and is a strange flower in the norwegian pop-fauna. The first album was released as a compilation album, the second album was presented as a coveralbum of music by the russian musician Mrakoslav Vragosh (who does not exist), and their latest is a featuring-album with help from other musicians and singers. “Headphones” is the name of a tour the band had last year, where no music could be heard without the use of…yes… headphones. Both the band and the audience had to wear headphones to listen to the concert… The band’s lineup is brothers and sister Kåre (keys & guitars), Erling ( vocal, bass, guitar, ukulele) and Bjørg (vocal, glockenspiel, percussion) and their friend Peder (drums and guitars), but on their official names in the band is K, Æ, B and P…
Schtimm will also tour Germany, Switzerland and Austria in June this year.
Labrador has a new release out now, – wan light: “that grim reality” (ep).
The ep includes five new tracks, and the label claims that the title song is definitely one of the best songs ever on Labrador. In the labrador newsletter the sound describes like a Swedish version of Galaxie 500 being remixed by Postal Service.
Here is an older track:
Wan Light: In the heart of Sarah Freeman
And we are waiting with excitement for the next labrador releases from Surburban kids with biblical names and Acid House kings, – both will be released later this month.
Momus is a strange fellow who always has made interesting and funny kind of cabaretesque music, – very much based on his intelligent and often biting lyrics. I discovered him in 1988, when he released his fantastic Tender Pervert-album. He is a strange fellow, ok, but he is also a brave fellow. On his website, he has uploaded his latest album “Otto Spooky” in full, – but not as it is released; this is premix versions, – the songs as they were before the producer started to work on them. Most bands won’t dare to play premixes to anybody but the producer, but Nick Currie, which is his real name, has the whole album on the web, premixed. Respect.
I am always a bit ambivalent to Momus, because I love his lyrics and I love some of his music. Sometimes the songs are like classics, and other times they hurt in my ear. He has made some really good songs, though. Recommended albums from me is Tender Pervert, Timelord and the compilation of his years on Creation Records, “Forbidden Software Timemachine”.
Here’s the link to his audio page: http://www.imomus.com/audio.html
He has even got his own blog, and lots of other nice things to read, listen and look at on his website, which I believe he runs by himself.
Momus also curates his own label, american patchwork.
